Bunuel wrote:
Nobody—not even those at the Silicon Valley start-up who have access to the code and data—can tell what piece of data came together
in combination with what other piece of data to result in the finding the program had made.
(A) in combination with what other piece of data to result in the finding the program had made
(B) in combination with what other piece of data to result in the program’s findings
(C) with what other piece of data to result in the finding the program had made
(D) with what other piece of data to result in the finding the program made
(E) with what other piece of data, resulting in the finding the program made
VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:
The most obvious decision point in this problem is at the start of each answer: two choices have “in combination” and the others don’t. A closer look at the meaning shows that “in combination” is redundant: when you say “what piece of data CAME TOGETHER with what other piece of data” you already know it is “in combination” as “came together” means “combined!” Since (A) and (B) contain blatantly redundant structures, they can be eliminated.
(C) contains the past perfect “had made” while (D) and (E) contain the simple past tense “had,” so consider that choice next. With the past perfect in (C), you have an illogical timeline: the program did not make the finding before the data came together – the data came together to make the finding, so they should be in the same time frame. For (E), the use of the participial phrase “resulting in the finding…” creates an illogical meaning. When a participial phrase is used at the end of a sentence, it modifies the subject and links the participial phrase to the action of that subject. Consider carefully the sentence created by (E): “Nobody can tell what piece of data…resulting in the finding” The fact that nobody can tell did not result in the finding!!!!! The modifier in (E) does not make logical sense in relation to the initial clause so this too can be eliminated.
The correct answer is (D).